This handbook contains a fold-out chart with several illustrations. They were prepared by Francesco Sebregondi of the Forensic Architecture Project at Goldsmiths, University of London, relying on data collected by Karen Alter and Cesare Romano. Our aim is to provide the reader with a quick overview of the rapidly expanding world of international adjudicative bodies. [International Judicial Bodies charts are currently unavailable on this site. We will be adding a pdfs of the material shortly, and apologise for any inconvenience in the meantime. Copies of the pdfs...

The editors’ preface to this volume explained how the study of international adjudication has changed over time, and how this handbook takes a new approach to the topic of international adjudication. Our primary goal for this introductory chapter is to document the institutional, legal, and empirical terrain that is the focus of this handbook, thereby saving individual contributors the task of engaging in mapping exercises for their specific issue area. We also want to put forward a quick digest for the rest of the volume. However, rather than trying to summarize...

When the Cold War ended in 1989, there were six permanent international courts plus the non-compulsory dispute settlement system of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The European Court of Justice (ECJ) offered the model of an active and effective international court. The other six international legal mechanisms did not inspire much enthusiasm or attention from litigants or observers. Today, however, there are at least two dozen permanent international courts (ICs) that have collectively issued over 37,000 binding legal judgments, more than 90...